John

Thanks to the above excellent finder chart from @Waddensky and a surprise cloud break. I have just managed to see Nova Cas 2021 with my 11x70 binoculars ! I had about 20 minutes before being clouded out again so after picking up the nova I whizzed around the sky with the binoculars and managed to spot: M81 and M82 in Ursa Major M44 and M67 in Cancer (nice to get this fainter open cluster in the crab) M42 in Orion M 35 and NGC 2392 in Gemini (pleased to get this well known planetary nebula) M 41 in Canis Major And that's it for this evening I suspect - thank goodness for binocular astronomy

These Takahashi's do handle very high magnifications extremely well, conditions allowing I didn't think I would use the 2-4mm Nagler zoom often but it seems to be my "goto" eyepiece for observing Mars, tight double stars and lunar details. The Powermate 2.5 is a great alternative though, plus you get the extra field of view and eye relief of the Pentax XW's

I've owned a couple of the fork design mounts, a Tele Vue Gibraltar and a Hercules, which is similar to the one that you link to. The Gibraltar was a bit of a let down in all honesty. It did a decent job with my F/6.5 102 mm ED Vixen refractor but was not steady enough to handle an F/9 100mm refractor or the F/7.5 ED120 refractor. The Hercules I had on a pillar on a 2 inch steel legged tripod and that was more sturdy than the Gibraltar but still not all that great and I was again a little disappointed in this setup. I know that @mikeDnight has had a better experience of one of these than mine though. Overall I prefer the "T" style alt-azimuth mounts such as those pictured by @Philip R above to the forked style. The Giro II that I had was excellent as is the Giro Ercole that I have now. I also have a Skytee II which does not quite have the build quality of the Giro's but is very solid and steady. Those are my experiences with them, for what they are worth.

How long do these usually events last ? Do we know how bright the star was prior to the outburst ? Thanks

Hello and welcome to the forum ! The good thing about the C5 scopes is that they can be handled well by quite lightweight mounts. I've even used one successfully on the humble AZ-3 mount ! The AZ-5 would be better though as would an AZ-4 if you can do without slow motion controls.

Well done Baz ! It's worth using some higher magnification on M82 when you next get a chance. Something like 100x or so. The galaxy has some interesting dark lanes which run across it and some brighter knots as well and these start to show up quite nicely at higher magnifications One of the few galaxies where seeing some structure is quite possible with moderate aperture scopes under average skies.

Good to hear of the successes with this one Unrelenting cloud here, unfortunately.

Lovely ! Wish we had that here

I notice that, back in August last year, NASA decided that NGC 2392 would no longer be referred to as the Eskimo or Clown-Face Nebula because these names were possibly considered derisive or offensive. This planetary nebula does have a third name, "The Lion Nebula" so I guess that is a possibility but there is another nebula that also goes by that name I think. Any other suggestions or should we just use the New General Catalogue designation of 2392 which I believe is what NASA are now doing ? Of course it is also a Caldwell object - number 39 so maybe C39 would work ?

Same here 🤞

Hope you get it Neil Not looking clear at all here otherwise I'd be planning to do just the same. Thanks for the "Heads up" Jeremy Hopefully it will stay bright enough to observer for a few days.

Nice report and great photos Paul I observed the Moon myself at that time with my 100mm refractor. I particularly liked the illumination of the Messier Crater pair close to the terminator. The comet-like rays from Messier A were not very apparent under this illumination but the deep shadow in both craters emphasized their unusual shape and form.

The Pentax XW's have a range of field curvatures from positive, through neutral to negative. I guess some focal lengths will suit some scope types better than others ?: Pity that similar data is not available for other eyepieces so that we can make our selections taking that into account. We seem to have to learn the characteristics of most eyepieces by trying them out and sharing the information on forums like this.

While I posted that one on that occasion, I did nick it from you Stu

M31 is not that impressive even with my 12 inch scope. Under a really good sky here I can just about make out traces of two dust lanes but normally it is a brightish oval patch of light condensed towards the centre and with an extended halo which goes beyond the edges of the field of view. M32 is like a fuzzy star on one side of M31 and further off on the other side is the fainter oval of M110. Personally I prefer the views of the M81 / M82 pair in Ursa Major.

The brighter component of Alula Borealis is mag 3.6, it's the secondary star that is a challenge. Normally your mak should show mag 10 stars without too much of a problem I would think but the proximity to the brighter star may hamper that.

Good result with Alula Australis The mag 10 component of Alula Borealis was pretty faint with my 130mm. I missed it initially and it only became apparent after I studied the star for a while.

Mainly double star observing this evening with my 130mm refractor. Over Leo's hind quarters are a pair of stars which are actually part of Ursa Major. The bears hind paw in fact. Their proper names are Xi Ursae Majoris and Nu Ursae Majoris. Their other names (which I much prefer) are Alula Australis (Xi) and Alula Borealis (Nu). They sound quite exotic ! Here they are: Both these Alulas are double stars but rather different ones through the scope eyepiece. Alula Australis is a splendid magnitude 4 golden-yellow pair with a separation of 2.16 arc seconds (Stella Doppie database). Very attractive indeed. Alula Borealis is also a pair but with a large brightness difference. The primary is magnitude 3.6 and the secondary star a rather dim magnitude 10.10. The separation is 7.5 arc seconds but seeing the 10th magnitude secondary star can be a ticklish business because of the brighness difference. Tonight the 130mm refractor showed them both quite nicely at high magnification. Both well worth seeking out IMHO. As Gene Vincent sang "Well, Be Bop Alula ....." or something like that !

Sounds a wise approach. "Clear Outside" was giving me red for most of this evening but my scope is out under a clear sky now as it's been for the past 3 hours. Not complaining though

Just had a look at Mars with my 130mm refractor at 300x. Small now innit ? Some subtle darker markings on the southern part of the disk plus the phase but not a lot else. Have to rely on NASA's Perserverance rover and it's drone for Mars excitement for a while I think

That's what I use. Don't need to cut it. Just break the cube joins around the shape you need then push the item in. After a short while the item has created a depression just the right size and the foam spikes in the lid of the case keep it in place. If you change the item you can pull the block of foam cubes back up and re-size the hole. This is one of my cases from a few years back without the contents:

Actually it's clear now so I am getting a look. Interesting illumination of the Messier crater pair close to the terminator

I have a roofless and wall less observatory. It's called my patio Nice lunar photo ! I was hoping for a quick lunar excursion later today but the cloud cover looks a bit too solid just now.

Does your 200mm Orion Optics have curved secondary vanes or a single vane Nick ?

M57 can be overlooked if you are using a low powered eyepiece in a small scope - it can just look like a bloated star. I often use 200x plus on it and that works a treat. I still have not convincingly seen the central star even with my 12 inch scope so I hope to do that someday. It's fun to pick out the faintest star you can see around the nebula: With M13, as well as high powers to resolve as deep as possible, backing off the power on a transparent night brings the reward of being able to see the galaxy NGC 6207 in the same low power field of view: I love these "2 for 1" deals !